Commander in Russian Mi-28 helicopter crash dies in hospital
14:46 15/02/2011 MOSCOW, February 15 (RIA Novosti) - The commander of the Mil Mi-28 Night Hunter attack helicopter, which crashed in the southern Russian region of Stavropol on Tuesday, died at a military hospital, a Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman said.
The crash occurred at 10:40 a.m. Moscow time [07:40 GMT], three kilometers from the village of Praskovye in the Budyennovsk district.
Earlier it was reported that two crew members had been injured and hospitalized.
"According to preliminary information, the engine gearbox broke and the crew decided to carry out an emergency landing," a police source told RIA Novosti. "The aircraft crashed cabin-first into the ground."
The Mi-28N Night Hunter is an attack helicopter, optimized for destroying armored vehicles and slow-flying aerial targets. The aircraft is robustly built and can withstand crashes involving a high vertical rate of descent.
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